Classroom Space Research Articles

Classroom Space and Student Positions in Peer Social Networks: An Exploratory Study

The aim of this explorative research study was to identify the relationship between the positions of individual students in their peer social networks and their classroom seating arrangement through sociometry and social network analysis. We examined the social networks of 17 classrooms comprising 363 students (183 boys, 180 girls) attending lower secondary schools (ISCED 2A). We found that positions in social networks could not be connected with single specific seating positions. Nonetheless, certain tendencies can be observed. Students who are perceived as more likeable sit in the middle column of the classroom and are seated close to each other. Locations inhabited by dominant students are positioned further from teachers and further apart from each other. The increase of the values of degree centrality, closeness centrality, and eigenvector centrality is noticeable in desks positioned further away from the teacher. By comparing these results with studies examining seating arrangements as a means of distributing learning opportunities through student participation, specific zones can be observed in the classroom that could benefit the children seated there in their roles as students and at the same time in their roles as classmates.

The affordances of iPad for constructing a technology-mediated space in Hong Kong English medium instruction secondary classrooms: A translanguaging view

Despite the widespread use of mobile digital devices such as iPads in teaching and learning, there is little research on the ways in which content teachers make use of the technological affordances of the iPad to achieve pedagogical goals in bilingual/multilingual classrooms. This article adopts translanguaging as an analytical perspective to explore how the use of the iPad extends the semiotic and spatial repertoires for enabling the English Medium Instruction (EMI) teacher to create a translanguaging space for supporting multilingual students’ learning of new academic knowledge. The data for this article is based on a linguistic ethnographic project in an EMI mathematics classroom in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Multimodal Conversation Analysis is used to analyse the classroom interactional data, triangulated with the video-stimulated-recall-interviews that are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The article argues that the iPad provides opportunities for the EMI teacher to fully exploit the semiotic and spatial resources for creating a technology-mediated space in the classroom. Such a space in turn allows the teacher to accomplish content teaching and build a more engaging environment for learning.

Student enrollment decisions and academic success: evaluating the impact of classroom space design

Student enrollment decisions and academic success: evaluating the impact of classroom space design

(Re)membering in improvisation as anticolonial ruptures: (un)doing literacy work in puerto rico

ABSTRACT Grounded in 10 years of critical literacy work in Puerto Rico, the authors engage readers creatively, to share key events in both our experiences as local teachers and as theatre activists in Puerto Rico. Our long-term purpose has been to explore new creative approaches to doing educational research and pedagogies that rupture traditional colonial structures of doing literacy work in local classrooms. After we share these creative stories we explore the idea of improvisation as Anticolonial literacy (un)doings to disrupt colonial imposed ways of inhabiting classroom spaces.

USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND VIRTUAL REALITY FOR A USER-CENTERED DESIGN APPROACH

This paper presents a method to integrate qualitative requirements in the design process, starting from environmental psychology, and including the use of virtual reality systems. The current approach to the design process is mainly based on compliance with building codes or regulations and developed through consolidated practices or previous expertise. The goal of this research is the creation of a work method, based on scientific evidences, that puts the user at the center of the process. Focused on school buildings and through a critical review, four main themes are defined as guidelines for the designer: a) perception of the building; b) physical characteristics; c) design of the classroom space and furniture; d) school green spaces and outdoor activities. These represent the starting point, potentially improved through the definition of new fields of research; for this purpose, it is possible evaluate the use of VR technologies as a potential support tool. The paper also proposes an experimental model to investigate, by VR technologies, the effects related to exposure to the external environment from the internal one, by studying two variables: the type of connection (visual vs. physical) and the type of environment (natural vs. anthropic) in relation to student’s stress and attention levels. This approach provides a new vision of the design phase where the focus is brought to the user through the analysis of scientific evidence, together with the use of new technologies.

QUALITY OF EDUCATION AND VALUE FOR MONEY IN PRIVATE BUSINESS SCHOOLS OF BANGLADESH: STUDENTS' PERCEPTION

This research studied the students' perception regarding the quality of education and value for money in private business schools in Bangladesh. A questionnaire including 42 distinct areas of student sensitivity clustered into 6 groups designed in a ve-point likert scale is used. The ndings show that broadly the students are more satised with general, administrative &registry, and faculty resources. They are found least satised with nancial offerings. In the areas of placement, career &perceived quality; academic, research &educational services; and facilities their satisfaction level is low and similar. Specically, the respondents are satised with airconditioning facilities, classroom cleanliness, classroom space, on-time registrations, education & communication skills of the faculty members, class schedules, and make-up classes. But the respondents are not much satised with transport, dormitory, recreation and gym facilities. They are found indifferent to further study from the same university they studied. Overall, the respondents are found not receiving adequate value for their money. This study indicates that the private business schools should focus more on research and development facilities enabling the students to continue further education. The research open scope to investigate quality of education in private business schools in developing necessary skills for employability.

A Qualitative Study on the Impact of Mobile Technology among Students in Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) in Peninsular Malaysia

The introduction of mobile tools into our classroom spaces ought to be a catalyst for remarkable possibility and genuine change in how we engage learners in the work we pursue together. It should be a moment where we look collectively at what is now possible in how we engage and learn alongside our students and where we do some cultivating that allows us to pull out less timely practices or tools and evolve to what our students need now. It should be a vibrant time. Today?s knowledge-based economy requires that nations equip their citizens with appropriate skills and a demand for university education has continued to soar. In much of Peninsular Malaysia, the rapid increase in university enrollments has been matched with an expansion of the relevant infrastructure, resulting in among other things, adequate classrooms and libraries. There has also been a robust growth in the technology sector globally. This study examines the impact of mobile technology usage among students in PHEIs in Peninsular Malaysia and its implications on quality as well as possible contributions of mobile technology to learning. Challenges aside, the study concludes that mobile technology could be exploited to supplement learning as it enables the student to access academic and research materials from credible sources that are either on free-access or subscribed-for through their home university. The findings also add new understanding as regard to factors influencing students? intention to use mobile technology in higher education.

The Classroom Re-Imagined and Re-Designed: The Pandemic-Ready Teaching and Learning Station

Save for the most callous among us, all of humanity knows the chaos wreaked upon the world by the Covid 19 Virus. The losses are of unspeakable proportions. Those losses continue. Among those losses is lost educational opportunity for our children and young adults. The debate among world experts continues unabated: when should we re-open schools? At what levels? Under what conditions? What are the potential perils? How do we assess the effects of viral mutations and variants? There is so much that we have yet to learn that, at best, we are making educated guesses; at worst, we yield to denial and despair. This paper charts the efforts made by various countries to deal with the impact of education on schools, colleges and universities. Given the vast differences in resources; the availability of medical and other expertise; innovativeness; and political will and the humility of political leadership to follow the advice of scientists, the responses have been markedly different. Not unusually, the poorer the country, the greater is the suffering. In this paper, we use Guyana as representative of nations bereft of those things we have just mentioned.However, even in nations that are blessed with the wherewithal for managing and minimizing the impact of this deadly pandemic, education has suffered. In poor countries, this damage may be almost irreparable for decades to come. The overall international quest has been to find a way to re-open educational institutions safely. Outside schooling, social distancing, hand-washing, and the wearing of masks have been vital ameliorating tools. Some places have used plexiglass to separate students and prevent the exhalation and inhalation of droplets. Other countries have simply followed uncritically what richer and more resourceful countries have done. Many countries have simply denied the fact of the pandemic or have simply guessed their way along. Denial and guess-work have lead to catastrophic results. In this paper, we have attempted a solution that involves the re-imagining and re-designing of the traditional classroom space into being a Teaching and Learning Station. This innovation, in our opinion, almost guarantees the safe re-opening of schools. It ensures the safe return to in-person teaching and learning, and it prepares us for inevitable future pandemics. We have offered up the design with the hope that it may be taken up and acted upon.

Sign names in an intercultural classroom space: practices and perceptions of sign language teachers and students

ABSTRACT This study investigates practices around the bestowal of personal sign names to adult New Zealand Sign Language learners, from both teachers' and students' perspectives. Key findings include that, (1) learners receive similar types of sign names to deaf signers but in different proportions; (2) getting a sign name is regarded as a significant milestone and a valuable commodity in constructing an intercultural identity as a `new signer'; (3) deaf teachers experience pressure of student expectations and cultural sensitivities in negotiating sign names in a classroom context. These findings can inform teacher practices and learner expectations regarding sign name acquisition.

Overcoming Workplace Challenges during COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from Telecommuting Academic Staff in Nigerian Private Universities

This exploratory study provides insights into the utility of telecommuting in times of adversity such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is still active globally, and also locally, as Nigerian institutions were shut down since March 2020, avoiding physical, in person contacts within the campuses. Telecommuting, or Working From Home (WFH) is becoming the new normal in pedagogy, as academic staff in some universities continue to exercise their roles in terms of Teaching, Research and Community Service. Utilising the benefits of Contingency Theory, the paper analysed the nature of telecommuting in the context of the unexpected events, the changing dynamics of the workplace and the new future of work. The paper is largely qualitative, relying largely on secondary sources of data and some primary information for analysis. The difficulties and challenges faced by several Public and Private Universities in Nigeria, like inadequate classroom spaces, hostels, infrastructure can be overcome by the introduction of a hybrid form of learning that incorporates Telecommuting and Virtual Online Learning as part of the pedagogy in the academic activities of Universities.

You matter here: The impact of asset-based pedagogies on learning

ABSTRACT This article describes the impact of asset-based pedagogies in elementary classrooms. Working with concepts such as culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogies, funds of knowledge, and Afro-centric praxis, it is possible to disrupt commonplace and pervasive assumptions about urban and diverse classroom spaces. Drawing from Grade 1 and Grade 4 classrooms, the article highlights a number of engagements that exemplify King and Swartz’s culturally informed principles of locating students, multiple ways of knowing and communal responsibility. As a result, teachers and teacher candidates affirm the importance of culturally sustaining and asset-based pedagogies in teacher education and in classrooms to promote well-being, agency and belonging.

Gender, Sexuality, and Language Teaching Materials: Why Materials Matter for Social Justice in the Language Classroom

Even though much has been said and written about commercial materials, our understanding is very limited when it comes to locally-produced (in-house, non-commercial) materials that are often used to replace or supplement existing published materials. In this piece, we share a review of literature on how gender and sexualities are represented in commercial coursebooks and our reflections on locally-produced instructional materials used in an Intensive English Program in an English Medium Instruction (EMI) university in Turkey. We underscore the vitality of materials in giving teachers agency in establishing in safe and inclusive classroom spaces, and countering systematic oppressions, discrimination and injustices in and beyond the classroom.

Narrating Global Literacies: Crossing Borders of Exclusion During a Time of Crisis

Although research endeavors on global-centric teaching and learning are increasing, there is much yet to understand on how classroom spaces can legitimize students’ capacities as globally literate members of society. In this article, we focus on the relational dimension of global literacies and examine how elementary students involved in a transnational partnership constructed relationality into online story exchanges with each other. We focus on four practices—communicating across language differences, sharing everyday worlds, pursuing connections, and embracing vulnerability.

Creating an ethos for learning: classroom seating and pedagogical use of space at a Chinese suburban middle school

ABSTRACT The classroom is a crucial, everyday element of children's geographies with important socio-spatial characteristics that demand scholarly attention. This study ethnographically investigates the production of meanings in the classroom space through seating. Building on the conceptual framework of spatial dialectic (Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell), it theorizes that classroom space is a fluid process that shapes and is shaped by the everyday spatial practices of teachers and students. Specifically it draws on the fieldwork conducted at a suburban middle school in China's underdeveloped northwest region, exploring the process by which the hierarchical seating arrangements are used as a pedagogical tool for creating a charged space conducive for learning at the classroom level. The study reveals that the built space in the classroom has been transformed into a space imbued with moral terms, in and through which students are expected to commit themselves to schoolwork.

Feeling safe from the storm of anti-Blackness: Black affective networks and the im/possibility of safe classroom spaces in Predominantly White Institutions

Black affective networks form in evanescent moments when two or more Black people in a white space cluster around a Black feeling and other things. This article is a feminist narrative inquiry into Black affective networks in classrooms on the campuses of Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) in the United States. Authors inhabit dual roles as researchers and study participants in an investigation of affects that percolated in two classrooms, catalyzing the constitution of Black affective networks in those contexts. In the lineage of contemporary Black feminism, authors use beautiful writing as a method with which to narrate stories illustrating the formation of these assemblages. The stories show that these constellations served as locations for the production of counter-hegemonic knowledge of Blackness—that is, perceptual spaces where knowledge of Blackness not as abject but rather as a wellspring of Black excitement, pride, love, and joy was transacted. Ergo, Black affective networks provided Black faculty and students with pathways for temporary escape from the anti-Black violence built into PWIs. Authors pivot from this inquiry on the im/possibility of classrooms in PWIs functioning as safe spaces for Black faculty and students to echo calls for a turn to Black affect theory and to trouble diversity and inclusion discourses in US higher education.

Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Greeting Behaviours in Education Through a Lens of Relational Engagement

Various impacts of COVID-19 have been explored throughout the literature; however, no research has yet considered the impact of COVID-19 on greetings in education. This paper represents an attempt to address this gap. 
 
 Using a lens of Relational Engagement, this paper explores the findings of a recent survey (n = 67) that asked how teachers have historically greeted students and how they will go about doing so upon return to a physical classroom space. Findings suggest that COVID-19 has significantly impacted teachers’ beliefs about greetings in the context of education, that teachers’ greeting behaviours are likely to change, and that it is possible if not likely that many teachers may experience various intra- and interpersonal conflicts when they next encounter students face-to-face.

Evaluating Students’ Reaction to Lectures Using Facial Expression Recognition

Interaction between lecturers and students plays a critical role in defining one's view of a lecture. However, with an increasing number of students enrolled in universities every year and limited classroom space available, classrooms are often overcrowded. As a result, it is fairly difficult for lecturers to immediately observe the learning feedback from all students on the lecture being delivered. In this paper, we propose a tool named Facial Expression Analysis Tool (FEAT) to help lecturers in universities in evaluating the effectiveness of their lecture by evaluating their students’ facial expression based on three facial expressions: bored, satisfied or confused. The tool utilizes dual CNN for detection and classification. FEATreceives the video feed via an IP camera from the classroom, and analyzes and stores the information on a cloud database. The aggregated information from the database is further filtered, and the statistical details are displayed on a visual dashboard on the web. The tool was evaluated in a real classroom environment and found to have achieved a good accuracy. The tool provides useful insights for the lecturers to better observe their students’perception on their lectures and improve their teaching approach if required.

The Use of Activities and Resources in Archaeological Museums for the Teaching of History in Formal Education

The research objectives of this paper are to compare the activities which have been prepared in the design of field trips from the perspective of teachers and museum educators, as well as to describe the use of resources and materials from the point of view of educational agents. The research method is quantitative, based on the study of a descriptive comparative cross-sectional survey. The participants are 442 teachers of early years, primary and secondary education, visiting two archaeological museums with their class groups in order to carry out an activity relating to the subject of history. The data collection tool was the MUSELA© questionnaire. The main results show that 60% of the teachers state that they prepare some kind of activities and 70% use some resources within the design of a field trip to an archaeological museum. On the other hand, 94.4% of the museum educators carry out activities using resources in the museum visit. The main conclusion is that the activities which are most used by teachers and educators in the museum (experimentation and artistic workshops, audio-visual observation and viewing tasks and debates or sharing) and by teachers in the classroom space (audio-visual viewing) do not guarantee research activities, analysis or reflection activities.

The Traumatic Impact of Online Teaching of ELT in Universities of South Punjab due to MCO during COVID-19: The Post Humanist Paradigm for New Pedagogical Practices

Recently, during the current situation of pandemic COVID-19, human interaction has been restricted. Due to moment control order (MCO) enforcement, pedagogy had to undergo the phenomenon of posthumanist and digital blended mode. The present research is aimed to measure the traumatic impact of online teaching on university students during COVID019. The students' responses were measured through a questionnaire. The major theoretical insights have been taken from Bayley (2018)'s Post Human Pedagogies in Practice: Arts-Based Approaches for Developing Participatory Futures. It has been found that students had to undergo distressful experiences due to a lack of technological knowledge and insufficient resources. In the light of the analyzed data, it is suggested that there is a dire need the academic institutions should develop a digital support system. The findings of the current study establish that our non-preparedness of digital for digital space in classrooms would be traumatic by affecting teaching, which is considered as the essential element of progress in social theory.

Learning development through the Girl Rising Curriculum: discursive colonialism and subversive potentials

ABSTRACT Global development and governance efforts are increasingly geared toward the unique power of girls from the Global South. In the “girling of development” discourse, investing in girls is not only the right thing to do but also the smart way to eradicate poverty and stimulate economic growth. As one iteration of this broader discourse, Girl Rising (GR) is a film turned social movement organization that prizes educating girls from the Global South to unleash positive development outcomes. With the help of the Pearson Foundation, GR created the Girl Rising Curriculum (GRC) to implement in elementary, middle, and high schools across the United States and the broader “developed world.” This article uses a postcolonial feminist framework to interrogate the colonial and capitalist logics of the GRC that, when contextualized in classroom spaces, are both reinforced and contested by teachers and students. While the GRC conceals its discursive colonialism and perpetuation of neoliberal capitalism through uplifting messages of empowering young girls, I argue that teachers and students in the classroom often reinterpret its logics through moments of subversive agency, signifying the discourse’s instability and transformative potential.